Central Banker

Delayed a day due to severe weather in central Florida, the under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training got back underway Friday with a colt from the third crop of Spendthrift stallion Bolt d'Oro (hip 787) setting the high mark at :9 3/5. Consigned by Top Line Sales, which continued to be well-represented Friday after posting five of the top 18 fastest furlong works during Wednesday's session, the juvenile was purchased as a yearling by Cash Bloodstock at Keeneland September last year for...

The five stallions standing at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds will be shown to the public at the farm's annual stallion show to be held Saturday, Dec. 9 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET. A season drawing will be held for each of the sires. New to the Empire State for 2024 is Bucchero (Kantharos), a leading second-crop sire who has relocated from Pleasant Acres Stallions in Ocala, Florida. He will stand his first New York season at $7,500 alongside Solomini (Curlin), the leading freshman sire outside of Kentucky, and...

Let's hear for mature females running the show--and running in the show! They work hard for the breed, especially when they race past their first youth. Was Walt Whitman maybe thinking a little about older mares when he wrote: "The female contains all qualities and tempers them, she is in her place and moves with perfect balance"? And also: "She is to conceive daughters as well as sons, and sons as well as daughters"? HEAVENLY PRIZE INVITATIONAL S., $121,250, Aqueduct, 3-6, 4yo/up, f/m, 1m, 1:39.51, ft. 1--BANK STING, 120, m,...

Wanamaker's has released its January Sale catalog, comprised of 33 hips, including 12 no-guarantee stallion seasons for 2022. Highlights of the catalog include a three-horse offering of broodmares from McMahon Thoroughbreds of Saratoga, led by Credit Analyst, an unraced 4-year-old daughter of Central Banker currently in-foal to Goldencents. Proceeds from the 12 stallion seasons on offer will be donated to Love My Pitties, a non-profit rescue, sanctuary, and rehabilitation program for dogs coming from high kill and rural shelters. The auction will be open for a week in total, with...

The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Sale of breeding stock returns Monday after a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic. A catalogue of 292 broodmares and broodmare prospects and New York-bred weanlings will be on offer at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion beginning at 10:00 a.m. The 2019 renewal of the sale saw 134 horses change hands for gross receipts of $3,384,700, at an average of $25,259 and median of $15,000. A $160,000 Practical Joke colt from the RFHF Bloodstock consignment topped the sale on a winning bid from Steven Weston. A...

Been paying attention to what's going on in the Empire State lately (er, you might know it as New York)? We speak not of the mess in the Governor's Mansion or resulting headlines and cable news rumblings. Rather, we refer to the status of registered New York-breds, exploits of which are tickling the fancy of the state's breeders--many of whom went home dancing with dollars following the conclusion of the Fasig-Tipton sale for a brace of indigenous yearlings. The sale continued a recent demand from owners, trainers, and pinhookers because...

McMahon of Saratoga's 2021 roster is headed once again by Central Banker (Speightstown), whose fee was reduced from $7,500 to $6,000 LFS&N for 2021. Solomini (Curlin), who will be standing his second year at stud in 2021, also had his fee cut from $6,5000 to $5,000 LFS&N. Redesdale (Speightstown) was decreased from $5,000 to $3,000 LFS&N. "Recent months have been very hard for everyone involved in racing and breeding and we are reducing the fees for our stallions for the 2021 breeding season to reflect the challenges brought on by...

Senator Howard C. Nolan, who grew up in nearby Mechanicville, attended his first horse race with his father at Saratoga in 1946--when the track re-opened following World War II--and caught the racing bug. He was just 14 at the time, so it would be another 30 years before he purchased his first Thoroughbred and eventually developed a large breeding operation in New York. Now, with his 87th birthday approaching, Nolan has decided to wind down his involvement in racing and is offering eight mares at next week's Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed...